Darfur was a center for the Arab slave trade for a long time, and Zobeir had established his own slave empire, with Darfur as its capital. In the Sudan, General Gordon estimated in the late nineteenth century, about 7/8 of the country consisted of black slaves. It was the British who stamped out the Arab slave trade in Sudan, as they had, earlier -- see J. B. Kelly, "Britain and the Persian Gulf, 1795-1880" --in the Gulf itself, stopping as best they could the taking of new slaves, though they could not end the institution of slavery itself inland in the Arabian Peninsula, where it continues to this day, carefully unnoticed by the Western powers more afraid to confront Saudi Arabia than they were back in 1962, when Western pressure forced the Saudis to formally abolish slavery.

Perhaps, if I can locate it, I will put up some excerpts from the excellent and influential book by Sean O'Callaghan, "The Slave Trade Today," published in 1960, a book which had a great effect on public opinion and pushed the British and American governments, then as now mostly in thrall to Saudi Arabia, to force the slavery question.

Posted by: Hugh at December 5, 2007 2:28 PM

As a poster pointed out on another thread, Thomas Jefferson and the other US founding fathers were well aware of the jihad in North Africa. I believe that one of the first missions of the US Marines was to defend against the Barbary (Berber) Pirates in Tripoli.

They don't make presidential candidates like they used to.
--
CT Yank

Posted by: CTYankee at December 5, 2007 2:51 PM

That they don't, CT Yank. You know, I had to remind someone of this when they mentioned our foreign policy as the reason for our "troubles" with Muslims...I asked them if our foreign policy was to blame for the raids by the Barbary Pirates. They were a tad confused until I mentioned it occurred in 1801. Stupid...some people just don't get it.

Posted by: Miss_Anthrope at December 5, 2007 3:51 PM

Thomas Jefferson and the other US founding fathers were well aware of the jihad in North Africa. I believe that one of the first missions of the US Marines was to defend against the Barbary (Berber) Pirates in Tripoli.

Thus the verse ...to the shores of Tripoli in the Marine Hymn.

Also Capt. Stephen Decatur dubbed his Marines Leathernecks after having ordered them to wear thick leather bodices covering their necks, to help avert their being beheaded by the Berber Jihadis, informed by the Sunnah that beheading was the preferred way to kill Infidels.

Many still died or were paralyzed by from broken necks, though.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at December 5, 2007 5:42 PM

Human Rights and Islam......

Like...

a frog with a violin....

or lipstick on a pig.....

or trying to teach a pig to sing......

or maybe jumbo shrimp.....

military intelligence.....

Redefining the term "oxymoron" for the 21st century!

"Kuffirs of the world, Unite!"
"Islam, abusing women since 622AD"

Posted by: OregonJake at December 5, 2007 6:22 PM

Here is a tremendously informative link on the Dhimmi status of women is Saudi Arabia...this must be how kaffirs live under the yoke of Islam.

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=9182&size

This whole Darfur thing is a sickening repeat of Rwanda...the UN is full of S*IT and scared. It's flag should be yellow, not blue and white.

Posted by: AmericanTiger at December 5, 2007 7:16 PM

As a poster pointed out on another thread, Thomas Jefferson and the other US founding fathers were well aware of the jihad in North Africa. I believe that one of the first missions of the US Marines was to defend against the Barbary (Berber) Pirates in Tripoli.
Posted by: CTYankee

Yankee, I can recommend the recent book by Ian Toll "Six Frigates: the Epic History of the Founding of the U. S. Navy". It's a fascinating account of the actions in North Africa, and of the politicking back home, and of the personalities rivalries between the various political figures, the ship-builders, and the captains of the frigates and other naval authorities.

Posted by: ebonystone at December 5, 2007 8:02 PM

Oops, make that "personal rivalries". Sorry

Posted by: ebonystone at December 5, 2007 8:04 PM

Seem to remember it was Joshua who sounded a trumpet and the walls of Jericho came 'tumbling down.'..Unfortunately neither bugle,trumpet or any musical instrument can do anything in
Darfur except to mask triumphant shouts of Jajaweed and agonised screams of their victims.
U.N is about as useful as 'tits on a bull'and it's
time was put out to pasture-should have been replaced years ago by a more dynamic,cost accountable organisation. Pigs 'might fly'before
this will happen...

Posted by: Morgane at December 5, 2007 8:09 PM

Oh, how I hate these poseurs whose sole raison d'être is to look outraged about everything. These disgusting hypocrites and their protests and die-ins where nobody ever dies, but at least they got on the evening news. They make me sick, with their stupid, infantile rhymes and bumper sticker mentality. Always "raising everyone's conscience", but too damn gutless to do anything about it in any meaningful way. Cowards. Worse. Vultures. Without Darfur, and Tibet and the myriad of tiny despot nations in Africa where the leading industry is manufacturing famines and disease, these yahoos would have no work whatsoever, and then how would they justify their poli-sci degrees to mom and dad who paid for their college vacations?

Posted by: Jauhara Al-Kafirah at December 6, 2007 3:40 AM

This is Neolithic-Naziism, straight from the camel's gob:

''Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim…then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain...''Islam and its peoples must be above the infidels, and never permit non-Muslims to acquire lordship over them." — Sultanhussein Tabandeh, A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1970.

Fair enough pal ... we 'infidels' shall reciprocate the sentiment. If I may be allowed to retort....

Since you obviously feel so 'superior' to the 'infidels' because of your stone-age religious values and whilst so many of you choose to come and settle amongst said 'infidels' (Hitler termed those he deemed inferior as 'Untermensch', I think he was somewhat more honest than you lot), you are perfectly at liberty (should you hold similar POV's to Sultanhussein Tabandeh) to fuck off back to any Sharia shithole of choice or origin, where you can feel even more smug and superior. Our 'exit' door is always open, feel free to use it, there's no charge and we won't delay you. The 'entry door' is just starting to creak towards 'closed'

Posted by: Joshua at December 6, 2007 6:41 AM

or trying to teach a pig to sing...

Being in the pork production business, I can assure you that teaching a pig to sing ain't that difficult.

But I decline to comment on the bit about putting lipstick on one.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at December 6, 2007 7:33 AM

Just a thought.

The Jewish festival of Hanukkah started this week. It celebrates the successful rebellion of the Maccabees against a foreign tyrant who was trying to extinguish the Jewish religion and culture, and who had deliberately desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem.

Had I been better organised, I would have got myself a Hanukkah lampstand and had it lit and burning in the front window of my house all this week as a sign of solidarity with Jews everywhere (who are suffering from a rising tide of anti-Semitism largely fomented by Muslims), with the Jewish state of Israel under siege from the Lesser Jihad - and with ALL victims of Jihad who, like the Jews in the time of Maccabees, face an enemy that is attempting to erase their history, their faith and their very lives.

Next year - and may we, by the grace of YHWH, all be here next year, but may there be better news to report and discuss! - let all of us who stand, as Oriana Fallaci declared, with the Jews, and with Israel, and indeed, too, with other victims of the Jihad, kindle the Hanukkah lights prominently outside our homes, businesses and (where our congregation is 'on side'), our churches, and keep them burning, for those eight nights of the Festival.

To all Jewish lurkers and posters at this site - and especially to those who live in eretz Israel - I say: my thoughts and my prayers are with you, during this Festival of Hanukkah. May you indeed be able to proclaim, not only of the past, but of the present - "A great miracle happened here".

Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at December 6, 2007 4:39 PM

This just gets up my nose, What are there 15 Islamic members of the 47 member committee. They only have to get 9 other countries to vote for them and they have a majority. The Muslim countries should never have been allowed on the the committee because they have all signed the Ciro Islamic declaration of Human rights. The simple act of doing that says to me that they don't believe that the Universal declaration of Human rights was good enough we don't belief in it, the Hypocrisy is mind blowing . Therefore they should not be on the council. The whole thing is one obscene farce. A little bit of Saudi money spread around will mean that the Muslims will dominate and rule this council from now on. The whole affair stinks.

Posted by: Holger Dansker at December 7, 2007 4:30 AM

"I believe that one of the first missions of the US Marines was to defend against the Barbary (Berber) Pirates in Tripoli. ""

...not quite...they did not act in a defensive mode...once the Muslims were correctly classified as being aggressive attackers, the Marines / Navy became aggressive offensively, actually going out to seek and destroy.....which is the best way to deal with agressive terrorists....being defensive infers you react only when attacked....this is a sure way to guarrantee you will be attacked again...

...Once the US military began aggressively attacking the Muslims in an offensive mode, the BS stopped.....some time earlier Spain did the same thing....it seem the lessons learned by the Spaniards and the early Americans seem difficult for modern pundits to remember...

...Failure to respond appropriately to life threating situations will ensure you will not have to worry about it for long....you will be dead...

....you can learn a lot from history....just look at Islamic history....from day one, Muslims have been on the attack, never wavering, never altering their battle plans, never conceding, never trying to co-exist.....

...Muslim immigration is a threat, and it is important to Ban Muslim Immigration...

Posted by: exsgtbrown at December 7, 2007 7:58 AM